131/05
17 November 2005

Metro Broadband Connect—Bringing broadband to the blackspots

The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, today invited public comment on the program guidelines for the Government’s $50 million Metropolitan Broadband Connect program.

The program will commence on January 1 2006 and aims to speed up the connection of around 200,000 households in metropolitan and outer-metropolitan areas that, for a variety of reasons, are unable to connect to ADSL or wireless broadband.

“Broadband blackspots in metro areas are disappearing and usually relate to the distance someone lives from an exchange or problems associated with RIMs,” the Minister said. 

“Two years ago there were 900,000 premises in metro areas that could not access an ADSL or wireless broadband service.  Today that number is only 200,000 for the whole of Australia.

“Because of constant technology upgrades and the rapid expansion of wireless broadband coverage, that number will continue to drop. But if you are living in Adelaide, Perth or the Gold Coast, the expectation is that you should have access to broadband now.

“The Government’s $50 million program will speed up the process by turning metro blackspot areas into priority areas for telecommunications companies.

Metro Broadband Connect will mirror the Government’s successful $157.8 million Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme or HiBIS where the Government pays a subsidy to any provider that connects a metro ‘blackspot’ premises to broadband.

The Minister also announced that a key element of the Metro Broadband Connect program will be a dedicated website - MBC Online.

“This web site will allow customers in metropolitan Australia to identify the full range of broadband services available to them and to register their interest in receiving MBC Services. This online tool will also benefit registered Internet service providers who will have access to information on where best to target their broadband roll-outs,” the Minister said.

The guidelines released today set out the proposed rules for the operation of the program and invite feedback from stakeholders. A final set of guidelines will be released once submissions are considered. The program will commence on January 1, 2006.

Feedback on the guidelines is due by COB Thursday 15 December 2005.

The draft guidelines are available online at www.dcita.gov.au/tel/mbc